A major cyber attack is currently under way aimed squarely at computer networks belonging to US natural gas pipeline companies, according to alerts issued to the industry by the US Department of Homeland Security.

At least three confidential "amber" alerts  the second most sensitive next to "red"  were issued by DHS beginning March 29, all warning of a "gas pipeline sector cyber intrusion campaign" against multiple pipeline companies. But the wave of cyber attacks, which apparently began four months ago  and may also affect Canadian natural gas pipeline companies  is continuing.

That fact was reaffirmed late Friday in a public, albeit less detailed, "incident response" report from the Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT), an arm of DHS based in Idaho Falls. It reiterated warnings in the earlier confidential alerts made directly to pipeline companies and some power companies.

I’d go a bit farther in the “alarm” direcion.... the article states some startling things. For example, apparent directives to NOT do anything about the initial breaches. It appears to insinuate that the warners are somehow connected to the culprits.

Ike, our network IT people should be intelligent enough to know where the attacks are originating, shouldn't they? Maybe the information is classified?

Am hearing bits (on TV news) of a major cyber attack to occur during early summer with all possessing a computer to go to a particular location on the web to disinfect their computers. Another setup? Don't know here, and this is becoming obvious more is going on than Americans are being told. (imho)

6
posted on 05/06/2012 4:01:17 AM PDT
by no-to-illegals
(Please God, Protect and Bless Our Men and Women in Uniform with Victory. Amen.)

We are all aware that the environmentalists would love to have a pipeline explosion to derail future expansion.

There is not a control system on a pipeline that would be capable of causing an explosion, regardless of what commands were given through the control system.

You can shut it down, fully pack it, or release the gas to the atmosphere through the vents that are intentionally sited away from all other equipment.

But it would take a mechanical failure of more than one system to ignite the gas. It cannot be done through the control system. I have participated in several hazard analysis of natural gas pipelines. We spend days going through "what if" scenarios.

"In order to disrupt the Soviet gas supply, its hard currency earnings from the West, and the internal Russian economy, the pipeline software that was to run the pumps, turbines, and valves was programmed to go haywire, after a decent interval, to reset pump speeds and valve settings to produce pressures far beyond those acceptable to pipeline joints and welds," Reed wrote. "The result was the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space."

All US (FERC) pipelines are required to multiple pressure relief systems. These are not systems that depend on the process control software. The operators do not have the ability to bypass these without physically being at the facility for a manual operation.

... When the power was cut to the control station in Milpitas, a system set up by PG&E automatically increased pressure on all three Peninsula pipelines, including the one coursing through San Bruno, according to PG&E employees interviewed by the safety board. The federal agency is investigating what caused the explosion.

Through it all, operators in the San Francisco control room proved powerless to fix the problem.

"We're screwed, we're screwed," one operator said minutes before the 30-inch gas transmission line exploded.

Unbeknownst to PG&E, the 1956 pipeline in San Bruno was vulnerable to rupture because of a poorly constructed weld on a longitudinal seam. The federal safety board’s chairwoman has raised the possibility that PG&E set the line’s maximum safe level too high because the company was unaware the pipe had such seams.

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I don’t think software and programming is going to cause 60 year old weak welds.

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